Wearing the same £1,200 Emilia Wickstead dress she wore to a lunch with Sovereigns at Windsor Castle earlier this month and a hat by Jane Corbett, the Duchess chatted to guests who included her wedding dress designer, Sarah Burton.

The Duchess was surrounded on all sides by a knot of guests wherever she went, and, asked how she was finding her first garden party, she said: “It’s very nerve-wracking facing such a sea of people but great fun.

“Everyone looks so pretty dressed up.”

Told that the average guest to a Buckingham Palace garden party eats 14 sandwiches and cakes, she said: “Gosh, no, really? Well I had better see what I can do about that!”

The Duchess, who joined the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and other members of the Royal family, spent several minutes chatting to Bethan Haynes, from Anglesey, whose husband Warren is a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy.

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“She really perked up and said how much she loved living there,” said Mrs Haynes. “We were chatting about what Welsh she has learnt and she said the two words that always stick out at her are araf, which means slow, and heddlu, which means police. We had a laugh about that.

“It was clear that she loves being in Wales very much and enjoying the chance to have a normal married life.”

The Duchess also spoke to Joanne Roberts and Captain Lee Roberts of the 4th Battalion The Rifles. Mrs Roberts said: “I asked her how it was being a newly-wed and she said she was loving every minute. She said she was so busy doing something every day and if she wasn’t working at an official engagement she was researching something to do with her work.”

Also among the crowd were newly-weds Gareth Jones, 23, a flying officer in the RAF, and his wife Rebecca, 25. They were just back from their honeymoon in Florida after marrying three weeks ago.

"She congratulated us, and asked me how long I'd been in the air force," Flying Officer Jones said. "She seems to share a lot of empathy and genuine interest in people."

Asked how she seemed walking into such a large party of people, Mr Jones added, "She was very confident."